Riot at Iran prison after inmate issued death sentence; shots heard: Report

Prisoners at a facility in southwest Iran started a fire to protest against a death sentence issued against a fellow inmate, and shots have been heard, an Iranian news agency reported on Friday.

"Following the announcement of the death sentence of a prisoner in Ramhormoz prison, several prisoners have started a riot by starting a fire," the semi-official news agency Mehr reported. "Gunfire could be heard from outside the prison."

The semi-official news agency Mehr said earlier that some inmates at the prison in Ramhormoz, a city in Khuzestan province, had started a fire after a death sentence was issued against a fellow inmate, and gunfire had been heard.

Iran, which carries out the world's highest number of executions after China, has often faced criticism by rights groups.

"Iranian authorities have executed at least 173 people convicted of drug-related offences this year after systematically unfair trials, nearly three times more than this time last year," Amnesty International said in a report in June.

Iran blames the high number of executions on heavy drug trafficking through the country from neighbouring Afghanistan, the world's main opium producer. Tehran also rejects criticism of its legal system, saying it is based on a lack of understanding by Western rights groups of its Islamic laws.

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